Minnesota’s Byron Buxton is making a case to earn an All-Star selection for the second time in his career.
The veteran outfielder will get another opportunity to improve his chances when the Twins play the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night to start a three-game series in Minneapolis. The contest will kick off a seven-game homestand for the Twins.
Buxton will try to stay hot after hitting two home runs in a 12-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon. He has four homers in his past three games and is hitting .280 with nine doubles, 15 homers and 45 RBIs for the season.
“He’s been in that really good, relaxed place,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Buxton, who was an All-Star with the Twins in 2022. “He’s playing great, seeing the ball good. … Really attacking and barreling them up.
“He’s played a lot of games where he’s taken over the game. He’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and he likes it. I think it fires him up, and teammates are fired up watching it. He’s exuding a lot of confidence right now. It takes a lot for him to do that because he’s a reserved guy.”
The Brewers will go for back-to-back wins after holding on for an 8-7 victory against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday. Rhys Hoskins, Isaac Collins and Caleb Durbin homered for Milwaukee, and Jackson Chourio went 2-for-5 with a double and a stolen base.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy said he likes what he has seen from Durbin. The 25-year-old rookie has hits in five of his past six games.
“He’s getting comfortable, and he’s getting confident,” Murphy said. “He knows what he has to do, and he’s a tenacious competitor. No situation’s going to be too big for him. He’s worked too hard to get here, so he’s not going to back down from any situation.”
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (7-2, 2.93 ERA) is set to make his 14th start of the season. He is coming off a quality start Saturday when he held the Houston Astros to two runs on two hits in seven innings but came away with a no-decision in his team’s 3-2 loss.
In his past nine appearances, Ryan is 6-0 with a 2.38 ERA. He has walked 14 and struck out 61 in 53 innings during his undefeated stretch.
This will be Ryan’s fourth career start against the Brewers. In his first three matchups, he went 1-0 with a 2.60 ERA and walked three and struck out 18 in 17 1/3 innings.
Milwaukee will counter with rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski (1-0, 0.00), who is scheduled to make his second MLB start. He was dazzling in his debut last Thursday against the St. Louis Cardinals, who did not record a hit against him in five innings. The Brewers won 6-0.
Misiorowski will try to improve his control after issuing four walks in his debut. He also tallied five strikeouts and threw 53 of 86 pitches for strikes. He threw 14 pitches that registered at least 100 mph.
The Brewers selected Misiorowski in the second round in of the 2022 draft out of Crowder College in Missouri. He quickly rose through the ranks and earned a promotion to the majors after notching 80 strikeouts in 63 1/3 innings at Triple-A Nashville this season.
–Field Level Media
